


Stay A While Longer

by ramblingsofagaysian



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Confessions, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Noah - centric, Some quality bonding time, Vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 06:31:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17441726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramblingsofagaysian/pseuds/ramblingsofagaysian
Summary: Noah finds Vanessa in the living room having woken up from a nightmare. He goes in to comfort her and has his own little moment.





	Stay A While Longer

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, my brain is on the "Vanessa has nightmares" train right now, so here's what spewed out as a result. Thank you to knightinrainbowarmour for Betaing this for me.

Noah is still awake at 2am after everyone else has long gone to bed and it’s pitch black outside. For once, it’s not for any kind of anxiety or bad dreams. He’s just up playing video games like every other teenager in the Western world. But it’s just as he’s turning everything off and going to bed to try and prepare for the coming morning that he hears footsteps. He was sure he was the only one still awake, he normally is with everyone else in the house being either over 40 or under 5.

With a careful step, he steps out into the hall, making sure to check around in case someone had managed to break in. There’s the faint sound of a sniffle coming from the living room. 

With everything going on over the last year, this isn’t an unfamiliar sound, and certainly not in the early hours of the morning. First, it was Chas, with the loss of Grace, her cries could sometimes be heard through the door in his room. Then it was his mum, Charity had taken everything so hard and he was helpless in it all, stuck watching her self destruction until Vanessa had managed to pull her back from the edge. 

He gingerly turns the doorknob and hopes that the hinges don’t creak when he pushes the door and peers in.

Sitting on the couch, with her back to him, is Vanessa. Her hair isn’t sitting in it’s normally flat and well-tamed self, there are stray hairs everywhere and she’s sitting in her housecoat. It’s clear she’s just woken up and decided to come into the living room, instead of potentially disturbing his mum in bed.

She’s had a hard time of it too, really. Vanessa had been a whirlwind of change in everyone’s lives and it had been for the better, even if he still acts like he’s not too sure of her. She came in like a hurricane and brought with her, well, normalcy. Despite everything, she has stuck it out with his mum and she’s still here. Still consistent.

Until Lachlan’s dad decided to enact revenge on behalf of his son, for whom he thinks he was a bit neglectful of in the past. It made no sense, not really. But it still happened and Vanessa had been caught in the crossfire. Caught and left for dead by the burning pub, blood pouring from the crude stab wound. 

He hates to admit it, but he has grown attached to Vanessa. Not only that, but his heart had sunk to the ground and worry filled its place when he heard what had happened. Worried about his mum, about how distraught she must be, but worried about Vanessa too. He didn’t want her to be pulled from their lives, she’d just managed to win him over and it wasn’t fair. It was one thing to walk away, but another to be taken. 

But here she was, back in the house behind the Woolpack, still in one piece. She was a permanent resident now, another one of the family and she fit in just perfectly.

He takes a tentative step into the room, “Ness?” His voice is gentle, and she turns to its owner.

“Noah? What are you doing still up?” She looks at him with that worried mother look, like he’s Johnny. Like he’s one of her own.

“Hadn’t gone to bed yet and heard you in here,” he puts his hands in his pyjama pockets, “What about you? Did you have another nightmare?”

Her shoulders slump with a sigh and she nods once, “Didn’t want to wake your mother up again, so I came in here.”

He nods along and walks over to the kitchen. Clicking the kettle on, he asks if she wants a cup of tea while already pulling out two mugs for himself and Vanessa. The answer is always yes, he’s learned. Regardless of what the person actually says.

Milk and one sugar in his, and just milk in Vanessa’s. “I’m sweet enough” she always said. Now that he’s gotten used to her being around he’s inclined to agree, even if the line is cheesy.

He hands Vanessa her tea, which is still too pale to be reasonably called tea and sits next to her on the couch. She nods her thanks as she takes it from him, careful not to spill any.

A few silent minutes pass. Noah never thought he was much good at comforting people, not when everyone else was around and he was just the young teenager. “Do you want to talk about it?” he eventually asks, looking over his tea to see Vanessa holding her own to her chest, taking familiar comfort in the heat of it.

“It’s the same one. Lachlan’s dad, the fire, the bottle”, she pulls her arm a little tighter, hand over her side where the scar is still developing, “Johnny. I honestly thought that it might have been the end of me, that I’d never see him again. That I’d never see your mum again.” 

Her eyes are distant when she speaks. Looking into the middle distance as her mind plays out the events again.

He’s feeling brave in the darkness so he lightly nudges her shoulder with his fist, “But you’re still here. Still keeping Mum in her place,” it’s enough to shake her out of her head, to bring her back to the present, “You’re still here pestering me about my school work and staying up too late playing games”. She turns to him and gives him a small smile. It’s genuine and soft and he can see that she’s back.

“I was worried about you, you know”, she raises an eyebrow at his confession. “I didn’t want you to go, and Mum was in one Hell of a state”, he’s looking down at his own half-filled mug now, trying to hide from his admission.

“And here was me thinking you still didn’t like me”, Vanessa says it with a touch of snark accompanied by a returned punch to his shoulder and it’s enough to get him to lift his head.

“Of course I like you”, his cheeks are tinged pink, he doesn’t really do the whole talking feelings thing. “You’ve been here through everything, and somehow you’re still here. I didn’t want to like you, I thought you’d be like everyone else and just leave but”, he takes a deep breath and keeps his head up, “but you stayed. And I hope you stay for even longer”. 

“Oh come here, you.” Vanessa wraps an arm around him and pulls him into a hug, he surprises her by hugging her back. 

They lie like that for a little while and Noah is surprised by how comfortable he is, and how much being hugged by Vanessa feels like a hug from his mum, it feels safe. Despite the conversation and the reason they were sitting there in the first place, Noah really does feel like a kid but, for once, it doesn’t feel like a bad thing. He’s here, so is his mum, and Ness too. He has his older sister, a new older brother, and a younger one too. He has his weird clan of a family and he wouldn’t have it any other way. In all of this, he feels like he’s gained another mum and he’ll take this, Vanessa, over meeting more Tates any day. 

Behind them stands Charity, in her silk housecoat and leaning against the doorframe. She’s heard almost every word and her heart swells at the sight of her son comforting and then being comforted by her girlfriend. It’s everything she’s ever wanted and it’s sitting right in front of her. That’s when the thought, that feeling, is finally solidified.

_I’m going to marry that woman._


End file.
